Joe Joyce will defend his 15-0 unbeaten record in his first fight of 2023 against China's Zhilei Zhang. Photo: Getty Images/Justin Setterfield
Advertising and boxing, especially heavyweight boxing, go hand in hand. Mike Tyson is infamous for saying he'll eat Lennox Lewis' kids while David Haye claimed he'd beat Jean-Marc Mormeck like «Rodney King in the LA riots» but Joe Joyce can barely put the line together, to «talk» your opponents.
In fact, it has become a «thing». His best effort of late has been to call rival and former UK teammate Anthony Joshua a «glass cannon». This week it was just like «Juggernaut» Joyce was getting ready to face China's Zhilei Zhang at the «Copper Box» in the Olympic Park on Saturday night.
Not a word between the two 6-foot-6, 18-stone heavyweights, and besides, this week it could have been lost in translation about the man known as «Big Bang» from Henan Province. Zhang, himself a gentleman, hardly speaks English.
“I just don’t know how to flirt with opponents with words or rude chatter. I'd rather do it with these two in the ring,» the tall Joyce explained to Telegraph Sport as he raised two huge fists to demonstrate the power that stopped all but one of his 15 opponents.
«I'm not ready to flip the switch until I'm in the ring»
However, Joyce is quickly becoming a cult figure due to his quiet demeanor outside the ring; and his fearlessness against anyone inside him.
“I tried, I even did a skit for BT Sport with Susie Dent [in which Joyce said a cascade of words in a simulated press conference like a swallowed thesaurus] but in real life I… I’m not ready to flip the switch until I’m in the ring added Joyce, who has other canvas skills as well: he earned a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree from Middlesex University in 2017 and still paints.
This is another unique advantage of Joyce, another way to look into his inner world. When there is time, he told me, there will be an exhibition, but it will be before his fight for the world title.
He has already had exhibitions with the Art of the Olympians foundation. Joyce holds the interim WBO heavyweight title, and fights with Tyson Fury, Deontay Wilder, Anthony Joshua or Alexander Usyk are all mouth-watering prospects if he can win the Zhang fight in east London.
Joe Joyce defeated Joseph Parker after a brutal knockout in an 11-round thriller. Photo: Getty Images/Alex Livesey
However, over the past two years, one of Joyce's selling points has been seeing if he can indulge in a pre-fight verbal contest. But he admits he's really just an old-school fighter who talks in the ring, respectfully raised in an amateur code that culminated in an Olympic silver medal in Rio 2016.
Joyce was as quiet as a child, his mother Marvel Opara told Telegraph Sport that she often «didn't know Joby was in the room.»
“He was always so shy. He got into rugby as a kid and I'm sure he would have been one of those quiet guys who run out onto the rugby field. I am convinced that if he had stuck with rugby he would have run off to Twickenham for England. I certainly wouldn't worry about getting beat up.
“I can get a little nervous during fights, but I can tell how a fight is going by the people around me,” explained Marvel, a Putney resident who has a condition called optic atrophy, which means she is 93 percent blind, or as the boxer's gleeful mother describes it, «I have seven percent vision.»
«I preferred to rely on myself rather than on the team.»
The big man himself was also thinking about running away from Twickenham. With the support of Marvel, Joyce started karate at the age of five, and a year later she took up rugby, and continued to play for London Scottish and Rosslyn Park as a teenager.
“I liked rugby, I played in the second row, was quite athletic, but once I started boxing [at Earlsfield Amateur Boxing Club], I never looked back. I preferred to rely on myself, everything depended on me, than to be in a team.”
Joyce moved to the professional ranks at the age of 32, took everyone, but notable victories over Daniel Dubois, Carlos Takam and Joseph Parker showed that he is a real boxer who wants to fight for the fans. “I want to be an artist in the ring, to perform for the fans, and I always want to put on a show,” he said.
“I see the week of fighting as the calm before the storm. My fights are always high risk. Why? Because I'm a juggernaut. I'm a tough person, I started with rugby, went through all sports and found boxing…
«I almost reached my goal of becoming world champion, but others [Fury, Wilder, Usyk, Joshua] in this moment seem scared or minding their own business. Why not have a good fight, fight everyone and entertain the fans?
“I look at it this way… Everyone has a plan until they punch me in the face. And nothing happens. Then I go after them…”
Свежие комментарии